


One Missed Session

by aravenwood



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Mentioned Adam (Voltron), Pre-Season/Series 01, Sick Keith (Voltron), Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 14:52:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17143808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aravenwood/pseuds/aravenwood
Summary: Written as a Secret Santa gift for refractedspectrum over on Tumblr. Their prompt was “A & B fight/argue when A is ill and hiding it.”Keith sleeps through a demonstration with Shiro, who’s pissed. He doesn’t once consider that there might be a reason for that, not until Keith faints.





	One Missed Session

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy guys. This is a gift for refractedspectrum. I really hope you like it. Merry Christmas!
> 
> (Also, there are no spoilers for season 8 because I haven't watched it yet. Or finished season 7.... *ducks head*)

Keith gasped as he awoke to the sound of a fist smacking against his door, a scream on the edge of his tongue from the nightmare he’d been trapped within. The gasp quickly became a rough, chesty cough which in turn grew to a full-blown coughing fit which left him unable to breathe. His throat burned, and the irritated feeling had acted like a trigger for even more coughing. For what felt like an age, he was trapped in a cycle of coughing, pain and more coughing, which only tapered off when his body was too exhausted to continue. He rubbed his chest and tried to take a deep breath, but it caught in his throat and another cough, much weaker this time, broke free.

The banging on the door continued, but it was only when his coughing fit was over that his brain registered it once more and the half-awake panic returned in full force He didn’t even looked at his clock before he scrambled out of bed with his heart racing and his mind screaming that it was the monsters from his dreams, they were here for him, they were going to kill him with those massive teeth and sharp claws. With his brain still fogged with sleep and his body feeling like someone had tied weights to them, he backed up against the wall near his bed and raised his fists over his face, all the while gasping for air. His chest was heavy and tight, his head felt woolly and his t-shirt was drenched in sweat and clinging to his back. Tears bubbled in his eyes at the thought that this was it, this was how he was going to die. They were going to break the door down.

The banging stopped for a second. “Keith, open up! I know you’re in there, your roommate told me he saw you!”

That wasn’t the voice of a monster. That was Shiro. And he sounded mad.

Scrubbing his eyes of the rest of his tears, Keith glanced at the clock on the wall. 3pm. “Shit!” he yelped and stumbled to the door, his steps uneven and his entire body aching uncomfortably. No wonder Shiro sounded the way he did - they were supposed to have been doing a demonstration this morning of some of the hand-to-hand combat stuff they’d been practicing. And he’d slept through it.

He opened the door to Shiro’s scarlet face and stormy glare. “What the hell are you playing at?” Shiro shouted, pushing past Keith and stopping in the middle of the room.

For a moment Keith was unable to follow him as his head spun the moment he tried to turn around. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, one hand coming to rest over his eyes as he willed the dizziness away. What was wrong with him? He’d slept for hours longer than normal and his body was acting like it hadn’t rested in days. After more sleep than he’d ever had in a single night, he should be feeling wide awake.

“Well? You can at least look at me, Keith.” Shiro kept his voice low, but somehow that was even worse than the shouting. He’d never spoken to Keith like that, probably because Keith had never given him a reason to. Shame flooded the young cadet at the idea that he’d caused that now, from Shiro of all people. Shiro who had given him more chances than anyone in his life ever had. And he’d screwed up without even meaning to.

Turning to face him was almost impossible, and not only because of the dizziness and the heaviness in his limbs.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked, his voice suddenly giving in. “I overslept. I’m just not feeling -.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Keith.” Good, he was shouting again. “If you didn’t want to do the demonstration, you should have told me. I would have been fine with it, you know I would have been. But no, you couldn’t even give me that – you had to embarrass me in front of everyone. And now you’re lying to me? Damn it Keith!”

Keith flinched and bowed his head, but caught himself and forced his gaze upwards once more. “I’m not lying. I really did want to do the demonstration. I just…I don’t know, okay? Maybe I was just tired. I’m sorry, I’ll do it with you next time.” He saw no point in adding that if he had gone to the demonstration, he was sure his body would have betrayed him – his legs were shaking with the effort of remaining upright and his head was spinning once more. He wanted nothing more than to ask Shiro to leave so he could curl up once more and wake up when he felt human again. But it was clear that doing that would only piss Shiro off even more.

“It’s 3pm, you’re trying to tell me you were asleep the whole day? You who wakes up at 6am every single morning?” Shiro scoffed and narrowed his eyes at Keith. There was anger there, just as there had been the whole time, but Keith saw something else there too – disappointment.

Keith’s chest grew tight once more, and as he opened his mouth to speak, a loud cough tore from his throat. He clenched a fist and brought it to his mouth, suddenly aware of the violent tremor wracking his entire body. “I don’t know what -,” he tried to say, before another cough burst from his chest, this one so deep that his body doubled over. It was followed immediately by another, and another, and another, and soon he found that he couldn’t stop. The world around Keith began to spin on its axis. Shiro, who’d been so close that Keith could have reached out and touched him if he really wanted to, swung wildly back and forth, his face blurring in and out of focus before Keith’s eyes. He tried to keep his eyes on Shiro as he swayed, but the attempt made his head hurt and the dizziness even worse.

“Keith?”

He let out a final barking cough and brought shaking hands to his eyes, wishing desperately that everything would just stop. He was so tired; his head was pulsing, his limbs and eyelids heavier than they had any right to be, the spinning world before his eyes too dizzying and the booming in his ears too loud. He barely felt his knees buckle, barely felt them hit the ground. Barely head Shiro calling for him once more. Everything was strange and distant, but a few moments later, it fell blissfully silent.

He was out before the rest of his body hit the ground.

\--

“Keith!”

Shiro wasn’t fast enough to catch Keith as he fell, but he made up for it by immediately scooping the limp body into his arms and cradling him close. He’d never seen Keith look quite as vulnerable as he did now, quite as exposed and open, and seeing it now was more than a little uncomfortable. He didn’t even know what had happened, only that one moment he and Keith were arguing and the next...this.

But with Keith in his arms, he quickly became aware of the intense heat radiating from his skin, as well as the minute tremors which wracked his frame. Keith was pale save for a pair of flushed patches high on his cheeks, and his mouth hung open as he breathed noisily, each inhale accompanied by a soft wheeze with made Shiro wheeze the moment he first heard it. How hadn’t he noticed that Keith was ill the moment he opened the door? All the signs were obvious now that he was aware of them.

“Keith?” he called softly, jostling the cadet in his arms in an attempt to wake him. But Keith only groaned and buried his face in Shiro’s shoulder, huddled close as he shivered like he wasn’t burning up. Shiro sighed. “Alright kid, let’s get you to bed.” And he stood with Keith in his arms, cradled close to his chest. He carried Keith over to his bed and placed him gently atop it, then tucked him in tenderly. His fingers unconsciously brushed Keith’s forehead and he couldn’t help but wince at the heat. Clearly the cold that had been going around the garrison for a couple of weeks had finally reached him after he’d spent so much time insisting that he never got sick, that he didn’t need to be careful.

Well, that was what he got for bragging.

Shiro himself had caught it the week before. Luckily for him he hadn’t caught it quite as badly as some of the cadets – although for all he knew they were only trying to get as much time out of classes as they could – and even luckier was that he’d had Adam by his side, taking care of him. It made the tight chest, irritating cough and constant hot and cold flashes a thousand times better to have the man he loved there, poking him to drink, tossing all of the blankets on top of him and generally keeping him from moping like he would have done was he alone. The experience of being sick was never pleasant, but it had been as close to it as it was going to get.

And Keith, if he had even known he was sick, had intended on going through it alone.

What kind of friend would Shiro be if he let that happen? He decided quickly that that was a scenario he wouldn’t even consider. No, Keith needed his help.

He quickly set about gathering supplies; a washcloth he found next to Keith’s shower supplies and soaked in the sink, a spare blanket from under Keith’s bed and water bottles from the mess hall – leaving Keith alone was a tense experience. Maybe later he could ask Adam to bring some soup over for when Keith was awake enough to eat.

In his bed, Keith let out a low moan and shifted. A frown creasing his brow, he began to toss and turn, whimpering through clenched teeth as whatever sights his mind was showing him grew more and more disturbing.

Shiro winced. “Keith,” he whispered, grabbing one shoulder and shaking it roughly. “It’s ok, Keith. It’s only a dream.”

Keith moaned once more and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow as the whimpers continued. His hands tightened to fists as his frown deepened and his eyes clenched so tightly shut that tears bubbled to the surface.

“Keith!”

Keith gasped as he awoke. His eyes shot open and darted frantically around the room, searching for a monster only he could see. For the longest few seconds of Shiro’s life, the fear in Keith’s expression was so intense that Shiro wanted to gather the young cadet in his arms and tell him that everything was going to be alright, but he wasn’t sure how well Keith would take the contact, especially now. So all he could do was watch and wait for the boy to realise that he was safe.

“You alright?” he asked softly as the panic in Keith’s eyes turned to confusion.

“Hmm?” Keith slurred, rubbing at his eyes with closed fists. His voice was rough, made even rougher as he coughed several times. All traces of fear were gone, replaced by exhaustion and weakness.

“Never mind. Come on, drink. You’re probably getting dehydrated.” Shiro unscrewed the lid of one of the water bottles and passed it over, and watched Keith gulp it like a man who’d gone without for so long. “You alright?” he asked once more as soon as Keith passed it back.

“Yeah,” Keith whispered.

Shiro raised an eyebrow.

For a second Keith looked like he was going to continue pretending that everything was alright, that he hadn’t passed out right in front of Shiro. But his eyes fell to his lap and he offered a weak half-shrug. “I’m sorry for missing the demonstration.”

Shiro sighed. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, I didn’t even realise you were sick. I’m sorry.”

Keith nodded, the gesture so weak as to be barely noticeable. He blinked slowly, rubbing his eyes once more and glancing around the room. For a moment they widened, as if he’d only just realised that Shiro was in his dorm room. His mouth opened like he was going to question it, but closed once more when he seemingly decided that it wasn’t worth asking.

“Hey,” Shiro said to catch his attention, “you should go back to sleep, we can talk more later if you want.”

“You’ll…you’ll be here?” Keith asked softly, staring at Shiro with eyes that gave nothing away.

Shiro shrugged. “Do you want me to be?”

Keith blushed. He gave no verbal response, but he didn’t have to. Shiro knew exactly what he wanted.

 “I’ll be here,” he promised, and he had no intention of breaking it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
